Whisper in the Winds
by SilverLocke980
Summary: One-shot. Stun watches his best friend, Jenny, wed the love of her life, Alan Gado, and as he watches he reflects on the past... NOT a StunJenny.


LEGAL DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN BLOODY ROAR OR ANY TRADEMARKS THEREOF.  
  
[]- Indicates thought  
  
* *- italics ( I don't have Word, so I'm stuck with Notepad)  
  
Hello, everyone. Most of you in the Bloody Roar section of Fanfiction.net do not know me, so pray allow me to introduce myself: I am Silverlocke980, a writer of some (very) small renown, and many varied interests. My fanfic credits include a completed Big O fanfic, a completed Soul Calibur fanfic, and three works-in-progress: a Darkstalkers story, a sequel to my Soul Calibur story, and a Dark Harry fanfic. As I said, I have many and varied interests.  
  
Long ago, I told a friend that I would write a Bloody Roar fanfic. I never got around to it, school and my other stories taking up my time. I was reading through my stories yesterday, scrolling for misspelled words, grammar mistakes, etc., when I found a author's note talking about my Bloody Roar fanfic. It got me thinking, so here I am.  
  
This story is mostly about Stun and Jenny (it's not a romance fic; why can't so many people accept the truth and reality of Platonic relationships?), and mostly explores the past. It's set- roughly- afte BR 3. I don't follow BR "canon" all that well, but then again, this is fanfiction.  
  
But I digress. Ladies and Gentleman,  
  
"SHOWTIME!"  
  
Bloody Roar  
  
Whisper in the Winds  
  
Stun looked down on the party outside Gado's mansion from his position on one of the city's many rooftops. Gado owned what amounted to a huge place, here in this city- a mansion with a full acre around it. The yards were lit now, Stun's old friend Jenny having tied the knot with old Alan Gado. The yards were full of light, laughter, happiness. Things he had lost a long time ago, in a laboratory next door to Hell, to the sound of Busuzima laughing. He'd done more than fall into darkness- he'd been swallowed by it.  
  
The sound of music filled the air, the jazz band Gado had hired now beginning to play a slow love song. As Stun watched, his yellow, mutated eyes picking out every detail of the party even at this distance, he saw Uriko Nomonura grab her boyfriend, a young man named Kenji, from his spot at a table with his adopted brother Yugo and Yugo's fiance, Alice. The normally moody, faintly depressed boy rather begrudgingly allowed himself to be dragged off by his over-enthusiastic girlfriend, but a smile crossed his face when they came close to slow dance. Stun rather thought that the two had a nice mellowing effect on each other. Uriko was, in a nutshell, too damn peppy. Stun found her annoying and hyper-active, but since meeting Kenji she had calmed down a lot, almost to the point of normalcy. For his part, Kenji had a lot of self-hate built up inside him, from his years as an assassin, as a killer. Uriko was helping him heal from that, but it was a long and hard road. He'd tried to suicide once, an attempt that had ended with Kenji in Alice's hospital, sobbing from his hospital bed into Uriko's arms. That had been a strange night, though- the Zoanthropes had all felt something tug at them, tear at them. The next morning, they'd woken up with the Marks on their bodies. That had all ended some time later, in a temple dedicated to the Devil himself, but that was a memory best left to another time. Tonight was a celebration of the best in humanity, not the worst.  
  
Stun sat down, legs folded under him like an Indian shaman, and watched as Jenny and Gado walked onto the grass of the dance "floor". Jenny was tall for a woman, but Gado still towered over her- simply put, the man was huge. Even Stun, in his beast form, barely matched him in size when Gado was human, and as a lion, he was even bigger. He'd told Jenny once, when she first told him of her impending marriage to Gado, that it was like that old fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast"- Zoanthrope style. She'd broken up at that, laughing until she'd cried. She'd told him, when she could recover her breath, that she'd never thought of it that way.  
  
As he watched the two of them dance, Gado's lightness on his feet belying his huge size, Stun thought back on the past. It was complicated, to say the least. He and Jenny had met some time ago in the very first Zoanthrope battles, during the time Zoanthropes had tentatively started calling the " Awakening", and had not had the greatest of starts for their relationships; trying to kill each other is generally not a good way to gain friends. But they'd both been so damn confused back then, just running around and trying to escape the nightmare of Tylon's laboratories...  
  
Afterwards, when the ZLF started up, Stun had come out of hiding. He'd been inside Alice Nomonura's hospital, the kind rabbit Zoanthrope tending his broken form, when he'd heard about the abductions taking place. He'd left then, determined to find Busuzima and kill him. He'd saved Jenny back then, rescuing her from the mentally deranged clone of a Zoanthrope named Long (who was named, in an oddly appropriate manner, Shenlong), and dragging her back to Alice's hospital. Alice was gone, having left to help her boyfriend Yugo, but he had learned enough from her to patch Jenny up well enough. The bat Zoanthrope had been too weak to move for a while, and he sat guard duty while she rested. He didn't know why he did it. If he had to guess, he'd say it was because he was so lonely back then, so alone all the damn time. To have somebody to talk to, to listen to, was the greatest thing his shattered mind could think of.   
  
He and Jenny had spent many nights talking, talking about the nature of their gift and curse, the nature of humanity, the light and the darkness of the human heart (they'd both read Lord of the Flies, and that had spurred some interesting conversation for a while], and finally found a friend in each other. It was rather ironic, really. He was alone because of his deformity, while Jenny was alone because of her job. He was damned by the choice of others, but she was damned by her own. He had felt a very new emotion for her, back then, an emotion he was used to feeling only for himself: pity. Pity that she found it so hard to care for anyone, knowing that at any time she might have to betray them or run away from them. A harsh life, harsher even than his own, for in his life a few kind souls like Alice would help him- an Esmeralda to his Quasimodo- but Jenny was not offered and could not take any kindness. No asylum for this nightface.  
  
Eventually, Jenny had recovered. Stun had went with her to fight the ZLF. They'd all been involved in that last battle, those who would, some years later, be the ones fighting the possessed Xion in the satanic temple called Beast Legacy- Yugo, Alice, Uriko, Bakuryu, Long, Shina, Gado, Jenny, and himself. They'd bonded in the ZLF fights, placing their lives in each other's hands, and the battles inside the Beast Legacy (where their very souls had been on the line) had bonded them even more. Jenny had asked him to come to the wedding, said that she would just invite the other Zoanthropes if she had to, but he'd declined. It didn't hurt him not to be there. The close-minded humans at the party, having no idea that their host and hostess were both Zoanthropes, were not worth his time to bother. He wanted Jenny to enjoy her party, to have the grand gala ball she'd always dreamed of, and him being there rather spoiled that idea. He had told her he would watch from a distance, and he was doing just that. He knew who his friends were, and knew that no simple party would affect their friendship in any way.  
  
He watched as Jenny and Gado finished dancing, and after receiving the applause from the gathered friends, they retired to a more private spot to kiss. Not wanting to watch his friend in a private moment, Stun moved his gaze across the party. Shina had gone off by herself, a shot glass in one hand and a half-empty bottle of whisky in the other ( the leopard Zoanthrope was something of an alcoholic, and though she claimed her Zoanthrope nature nullified the alcohol's effect, Stun had seen her passed out drunk more than once), and had sat down on the opposite end of the house from where her father and new mother-in-law were kissing. He watched Long, ever the Chinese gentleman, look around for her. Not seeing her, he pushed his spectacles up and began the long process of properly excusing himself from the table.  
  
Long and Shina didn't seem to know it (although everyone else saw it), but they were made for each other. Stun didn't know them quite so well as he did Yugo and Alice's respective families, since he'd stayed with them after the Beast Legacy fights, but even he realized that the two were perfect for each other. Shina would loosen Long up, show him that always being the gentleman wasn't the best course. Even now, Long was excusing himself from the table with an overabundance of humility, not wanting to offend anyone, whereas Shina would have simply gotten up and left. On the other hand ([ Or is it claw in this case?] Stun wondered, and chuckled]), Long would show her the higher and finer things in life, maybe calm her drinking and fighting down and teach her a thing or two about humility. Which meant, of course, that Long was going to have a hell of a lot harder time than Shina would. Stun thought this and laughed again. He was almost having as much fun watching what was going on from his omniscient vantage point as he would have actually being in the party.  
  
His sight wandered about, watching as UN friends of Gado drank and talked, smoked and ate. Gado was bringing them here, while they still thought he was human (a pro-Zoanthrope activist, but human) so they could enjoy a civilized party and see the most human side of Gado before he dropped a bomb on them, announcing that he was a Zoanthrope himself. He wanted to prove just how civilized he was to them, when they still had eyes clear of hate. A good plan, all told. Two here were fervently anti-Zoanthrope, three were neutral, and four were pro-Zoanthrope. It was the neutrals that Gado wanted to change most; he doubted the Beast-haters would change, but he wanted to give them that chance. He was a fair man, when you summed it up; the honor he had as a mercenary he had kept in the UN. He'd once said, as they'd been traveling in Asia towards the Beast Legacy, that honor was really all anyone had, the reason the center still held in this world. It was all he'd ever counted on, and it had seen him through this far in life. It would see him through until the end.   
  
While Stun's mind had been wandering, Gado and Jenny had split apart, Gado walking over to a group of UN members to chat with them. Jenny had walked off by herself, slipping unnoticed into the shadows of the mansion and going into the empty street (Gado had paid for roadblocks around his house, not wanting the party to be ruined by honking horns, car crashes, or the million other things that Murphy's Law prophesied). She slipped between shadows, and a few minutes later Stun's acute insect hearing heard the light clang Jenny made with her shoes on the fire escape outside the house he sat upon. He turned to face his friend, as she finished climbing up the fire escape and stepped onto the rooftop.  
  
Jenny brushed her dress off, looking critically at her dress for stains or marks, and said to him, still looking down, " You know, you could have chosen a spot a little easier on the dress. Gado will kill me if I ruin this dress- it cost him over three thousand dollars."  
  
Stun snorted and said, " Just three thousand? I figured you'd have Gado bankrupt in a week."  
  
" Ha ha, very funny. I see you're still wearing that scarf. It doesn't match your purple skin very well."  
  
" Oh, really? The guy at the department store said it matched very well, thank you very much."  
  
Jenny smiled at this. The smile faded away, the light talk finished, and it was with a sad face she said, " I'm sorry about this."  
  
Stun waved her words away. " Please. What does this matter to me? We are friends, Jenny. Old friends. This doesn't affect that in any way."  
  
Jenny shrugged and turned her face away, after all these years still uncomfortable opening herself up to others. [Old habits die hard,] Stun thought as he watched her struggle for the right words to sum up her thoughts and feelings.  
  
" It's just... wrong, somehow," she said, shrugging as she did, causing her red dress to rise from the ground and go back with a whisper of movement, " You are my best friend, Stun. You should be part of this. It's my wedding, dammit! I want you to be there, at the party, laughing and talking with the rest of us. It's not right that you should be stuck up here, all by yourself!" Her outburst finished, she turned away from him fully and said, more calmly, " It just makes me feel bad, is all."  
  
Stun stood up and placed his claw hand on Jenny's shoulder, squeezing it to comfort his friend. " Jenny, it isn't right that I'm up here. But that was my choice. You've always wanted a big party for your wedding, and I'm not exactly a good choice for a party setting. The people are still too closed of mind. But that's all right. The best thing about darkness is that it always passes... I will be fine. There are days beyond counting ahead, days we can talk and laugh together. This isn't one of those days, but that's all right." He punctuated this last with another squeeze. " I'm happy for both of you. Don't worry about me. Just save me some cake, will you?"  
  
Jenny put her hand on his his and squeezed it, not noticing the fact that it was a claw made for slaying, not for giving comfort. Then she turned around and hugged him, rather surprising him. " Thanks Stun. You should be a preacher. You've made me feel a lot better."  
  
Stun, rather embarrassed and touched by his friend's embrace, hugged her back and said, " Well, I did take some courses on Public Speaking in college."  
  
They let go of each other, and with a final nod and smile goodbye, Jenny headed back to the party. Stun turned in time to see Gado find his mostly drunk daughter being slapped awake by Long. His chortling laughter, sounding like the pleasant chirping of content grasshoppers at night, followed Jenny as she walked back to the party.  
  
************************************************************************  
  
The day after the party. Yugo's house.  
  
Stun awoke that morning feeling quite content with himself, a feeling he was quickly coming to be more familiar with. It was good to let go of the pain, to regain what he had lost so long ago. He was in Yugo's house, in a spare bedroom Yugo kept for guests. Stun spent most of his nights here, when he wasn't at Alice's house getting tended. His body had mostly finished mutating, but on some nights his body shifted violently, and only Alice had the faintest idea of how to help him. Large amounts of painkillers were a major part of his treatment, but Alice sometimes had to restrain his shifting form with bandages to keep his body from tearing itself apart. The bandages had been a major reason Uriko had been so afraid of him, the first few times they met; she'd told him once, slightly embarassed of herself, that she had thought he was the main villain from the movie The Mummy. He'd found it rather funny at the time.  
  
Stun got up from his bed and stood up, meaning to walk over and roll the shade down. Then he realized what he was doing and instantly switched his mind into red alert. He knew it had been lowered last night. It was lowered all the time, to keep nosy neighbors from spotting him. Why was it open?  
  
He kept well back from the window, glancing around the room for potential threats as he backed into a corner, limiting his vulnerable area. There was no way either Xion or Busuzima could have done it- Xion had been possessed when he had killed (and was in jail besides) and Busuzima was supposed to be dead. So who opened his window? That freak Kohryu? Uranus? But they were all dead, buried in the rubble of the Beast Legacy...  
  
He spotted something on the desk next to his bed. A paper plate with a fork next to it.  
  
[ What the hell?] he thought, then noticed what was on the plate. A piece of cake, or more specifically, wedding cake. He walked cautiously over to it. Beside the cake, a handwritten note had been laid under the fork:  
  
* Here's the piece of cake you asked for. Hope you enjoy it.  
  
- Your friend,  
  
Jenny Gado  
  
P.S. Couldn't figure out how to roll the shade down when I left. Sneaking in to people's houses is a lot harder than it looks on TV.*  
  
Chuckling to himself, Stun took up his fork and began to eat.   
  
- Hope you guys like it. Review me please, and read my other works if you want. May honor follow you all your days. 


End file.
